Meet Josh Pringle! Josh is a Tasmanian illustrator, the founder of Keep Tassie Wild and collaborator on the newest piece in our collection! We've always loved Josh's work and knew we wanted to work with him on something exciting. That turned out to be our Isle of the Brave Jacket: a limited edition homage to our island home. We went to visit Josh, where we spent time with his lovely family (partner Linsday and adorable baby boy Rupert!), checked out his studio and had chat about what it was like working together!

 PM: How did this collaboration come about?

JP: This collaboration has been a long time in the making. The conversation started about three years ago so the details are a bit foggy, but from memory Martina got in contact with me via Instagram and asked if I’d be up for collaborating. I’m not much of a fashion person but Pitbull Mansion was on my radar (thanks to my wife, Lindsay) so I was definitely keen to talk.

Martina wanted a design that paid homage to Tasmania. It was quite an organic process. We threw around ideas and eventually, after a couple of different illustrations, landed on the Isle of the Brave design.

PM: Why did you and Martina decide to work together?

JP: From the initial conversations in the room above Pitbull Mansion I think it was clear that the project would be fun and not too rigid. There was a brief, but a lot of room to move within that. And it all centred around Tassie so that for me was a big win.

We were working on the back design while the pattern of the jacket was being decided so this presented some logistical issues with placement but also meant the project felt fluid and the different design approaches worked together as a whole. It wasn’t just a case of sticking a design on a pre-made sweatshop denim jacket and ‘there you go’.

I was excited about working with a Tassie owned shop that also valued quality, a hands-on approach and keeping things as local as possible. It’s not every day you get your designs embroidered on a denim jacket designed and made in Australia. So that’s a bonus!